Wilful Impropriety ed. by Ekaterina Sedia

I first read about Wilful Impropriety back in June 2012 in a blog post by Malinda Lo. In that particular post Lo, the author of novels Ash, Huntress and Adaptation, listed YA books published in the US in 2012 that include LGBT main characters.

I must admit I had forgotten all about this anthology until I was browsing Foyles YA section in their Charing Cross Street store during my New Year's trip to London. Wilful Impropriety caught my eye, because the name of the book sounded interesting and I found the cover somehow hauntingly alluring. And then I remembered that I had read about this book somewhere!

Wilful Impropriety is an anthology of 13 historical stories set in Victorian times, 13 tales of society, scandal and romance as the subtitle goes. The theme of all these stories is "true love has no barriers". The back cover tells us: "At long last the Season has arrived, with its magnificent balls, its scandalous gossip and its numerous clandestine relationships. But both within this charmed world and beyond its superficial glitter, there are those who chafe against rigid social barriers and wilfully violate the rules, despite the stakes being very high indeed... Sometimes luck in enough, but every once in a while a touch of magic is needed".

Wilful Impropriety is an absolutely wonderful book! I loved every single story in it and would not have minded one bit if there had been many more than 13 stories in this book!:) What is so wonderful about Wilful Impropriety is that the anthology is nicely inclusive. Race, social class, gender and sexual identity all are factors in one or more of the stories. These are also feelgood stories with mostly happy endings. The girl gets the boy, or sometimes the girl gets the girl, or passes as a man and marries the girl, or the boy gets the sprite. In a story called Outside the Absolute by Seth Cadin the main character Sam wears alternately both men's and women's clothing and Sam's biological gender is not revealed until almost in the end where as Sam's love interest's biological gender is never really said out loud, only hinted at.

As I said, I loved all the stories in this anthology, but some I loved even more than others. :) My favorites included:

-The Unladylike Education of Agatha Tremain by Stephanie Burgis
Agatha's aunt arrives to launch Agatha into society, but all Agatha would like to do is to study magic. In a London ball she accidently meets a young woman and realises this is the person she would like to spend her life with, only the women in her family really have to marry men for magical reasons.
-Mercury Retrogade by Mary Robinette Kowal
An aristocratic young woman falls in love with a clockmaker rumored to be the son of a British Admiral and his Indian mistress. A little macigal help is needed for a happy ending.
-False Colors by Marie Brennan
A young woman decides to pass as her brother, when the brother dies during his first vacation from the navy and an inheritance is at stake. She moves up in the ranks and is made a lieutenant. Only Lieutenant Ravenswood can't help falling for his/her best friend in the navy, who of course believes Ravenswood to be a man.

All in all Wilful Impropriety is a lovely book! Totally reread worthy! :)

Wilful Impropriety is edited by Ekaterina Sedia and includes a foreword by Scott Westerfield. Immedietely after reading Wilful Impropriety I checked our library catalogue for books by any of the writers included in this anthology. I now have Sedia's book Heart of Iron home from the library. It's a steampunky, wuxia adventure inspired novel set in 19th century Russia!